HikVision NVR Can't See Camera's After Power Failure

[Neuk]

Hi all

I hope that everyone is well.

Unfortunately in South Africa we are subject to random and scheduled power failures and the LA batteries of our ESS are failing so even though we have backup our NVR loses power at times. For the most part this isn't an issue, the NVR starts up again but two of our four cameras will sometimes not be picked up by the NVR, sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't, this is a frustrating and somewhat random issue. The camera's in question are both HIKVision SE-DS-2CD2055FWD-I cameras (2.8mm fixed length) while the other two HIKVision SE-DS-2CD2055FWD-I cameras (4mm fixed length) come back fine, as does the feed from our Sonoff IP cameras.

What can I check to debug the issue?

Thanks
Nic

 

[alastairstevenson]

What can I check to debug the issue?

The firmware versions, see if they are different.

 

[Neuk]

The firmware versions, see if they are different.

The cameras are both offline so how would I do this? And why would firmware issues cause them to work perfectly until there is a power failure?

 

[alastairstevenson]

Are the cameras on NVR PoE ports?
If so, connect a PC to an unused NVR PoE port and use SADP to see the camera status and details.
Check the IP address is as expected.

The firmware holds the code that handles the dialogue between camera and NVR. There are often tweaks and fixes to that between versions.

 

[Neuk]

Are the cameras on NVR PoE ports?
If so, connect a PC to an unused NVR PoE port and use SADP to see the camera status and details.
Check the IP address is as expected.

The firmware holds the code that handles the dialogue between camera and NVR. There are often tweaks and fixes to that between versions.

Yes, all camera's excluding the Sonoff cameras are plugged in to the NVR PoE ports. I'll plug my laptop on as you suggest and run SADP, at the moment I can see that one of the HikVision cameras (Outside Top) is offline and the IP address looks a bit weird...



I also don't understand why only the Garage Entrance camera has Strong security, all the camera's are setup with a password different from the stock standard and the same security settings.

 

[Neuk]

I can only see three of the four cameras connected to the NVR PoE's...

 

[alastairstevenson]

Ok, that shows it's the cameras themselves that are not powered on and booted up.

Questions and suggestions :
Do the link detect and data lights on the NVR PoE port show for the missing camera (Outside Top)?
As the problem is intermittent - it's likely that disconnecting and re-connecting will bring it back online.
I think it's fairly common that problems like this can be caused by marginal faults in the cabling.

If you connect that Outside Top camera cable to an unused PoE port - does the link detect light come on?
And if you temporarily connect the cable from D1 or D2 into the problem D4 port - does the link detect reliably appear?

I also don't understand why only the Garage Entrance camera has Strong security, all the camera's are setup with a password different from the stock standard and the same security settings.

The select checkbox for that camera might suggest the channel is in Manual mode as opposed to Plug&Play.

 

[Flintstone61]

Any chance his Routing is set to DHCP on the misbehaving cams? If so, they might be on and sitting at a different IP?

 

[alastairstevenson]

If so, they might be on and sitting at a different IP?

If so, SADP will see them and the status will be clear.

 

[Neuk]

Ok, that shows it's the cameras themselves that are not powered on and booted up.

Questions and suggestions :
Do the link detect and data lights on the NVR PoE port show for the missing camera (Outside Top)?
As the problem is intermittent - it's likely that disconnecting and re-connecting will bring it back online.
I think it's fairly common that problems like this can be caused by marginal faults in the cabling.

If you connect that Outside Top camera cable to an unused PoE port - does the link detect light come on?
And if you temporarily connect the cable from D1 or D2 into the problem D4 port - does the link detect reliably appear?

That is what it looks like, the camera is not powering up for some reason, although it had no issue before the power failure. The camera in SADP with ID 03 is the other camera that takes a while to come back online after a power failure but is working perfectly fine at the moment.

At the moment there is no power at the Outside Top camera that I can see, the link detect light does not come on at any PoE port I plug it in to, I have disconnected it at the NVR and at the camera a few times with no luck. I'll test the cable when I get my connectivity tester back from my father-in-law, the cable is quite expensive CAT5 solid copper core shielded and UV coated, hoping it isn't the issue as it is a pain to rerun.

The select checkbox for that camera might suggest the channel is in Manual mode as opposed to Plug&Play.

Thanks, I'll check that when I get a chance.

 

[alastairstevenson]

the cable is quite expensive CAT5 solid copper core shielded and UV coated, hoping it isn't the issue as it is a pain to rerun.

The joint between the cable and the camera pigtail would be worth checking out, if it's reasonably accessible.
There are various ways in which problems can occur there.

 

[Neuk]

The joint between the cable and the camera pigtail would be worth checking out, if it's reasonably accessible.
There are various ways in which problems can occur there.

I'll check it out, I have unplugged it before with no change in behaviour, and what makes no sense is that there was no issue before the power failure and I can see no sign of physical damage anywhere.

 

[Neuk]

This gets stranger and stranger...

I unfortunately haven't had a chance to check cabling as my father-in-law is still busy with my connectivity tester and it is an hours drive away but I happened to be on our main garage roof yesterday and unplugged the one camera that hasn't come back online before plugging it back in. I didn't check anything else until last night when I was letting my sister-in-law out after dinner, when I noticed all four camera's were powered as I could see the IR lights on all of them. I checked the iVMS-4500 app but one of the cameras was still not online despite seeing that it was powered, so I decided to reboot the NVR and see if that would help since the camera now had power. The NVR rebooted and now only two of the four cameras are available with no signs of the cameras being on or powered, I went outside and the two that aren't available had no IR lights on or any other signs they were powered on.

I have no explanation for this at all, how a reboot influences a camera that was online and viewable to no longer be, I am stumped.

 

[Neuk]

And now one of the camera's that didn't come back after the reboot of the NVR last night, is back online with me having done absolutely zero.

 

[Neuk]

Finally got this issue sorted out...

...which turned out to be dodgy RJ45 connection I had a friend come over with his CAT cable continuity checker as I could see the NVR was powering the camera but not receiving any feed from it. We found one of the cables was not connected so pulled the old RJ45 off, put a new one on and voila.